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Mel Gibson Offended Gays Too

Mel Gibson’s way with words have him in some seriously hot water. But his anti-Semitic outburst during his drunk driving arrest in Malibu last Friday was not the first time the “The Passion of the Christ” director has made seriously disparaging remarks about his fellow human beings.

Back in 1992, Gibson caused an uproar among gays when during an interview with a Spanish newspaper, he made a graphic remark about anal sex as he complains about being “labeled” as gay because he’s an actor. He then goes on to label every gay with these remarks: “But with this look, who’s going to think that I’m gay? It would be hard to take me for someone like that. Do I sound like a homosexual? Do I talk like them? Do I move like them? What happens is when you’re an actor, they stuck that label on you.”

He no doubt lost many gay fans at that point but things got worse when Gibson was asked in a 1995 Playboy interview about prostests made by GLAAD over his disparaging statements three years earlier: “I’ll apologize when hell freezes over.

When Gibson starred in and directed 1993’s “The Man Without a Face,” the film heterosexualized the gay leading character of the novel on which it was based. Then in his Oscar-winning “Braveheart,” Gibson drew fire for including one of the negative gay portrayals in recent film history in scenes with Great Britain’s Edward II whose lover is casually pushed out a window to his death.

It seemed that Gibson was offering an olive branch of sorts when he conducted a seminar in 1997 for a group of lesbian and gay filmmakers. But he was unrepentent about any of his remarks or filmmaking decisions that gays had found so offensive.

With his looks and talent, Gibson obviously had many gay fans early in his career but he lost many of them in the 90s. It’s hard to beieve that this is the same guy, who in one of his first films, “Summer City,” playfully kissed one of his friends on the mouth in the back seat of a car as they were on their way to the beach. It was Gibson’s first onscreen kiss!

Lasrt year, Gibson spoke out about the kiss he shared with actor Steve Bisley (who later appeared with Gibson in the first “Mad Max” movie pictured below) saying he was “ashamed” of the smooch.

“It was a cheap, nasty movie that was cranked out in three weeks on a tiny budget,” Gibson said.

He won the role during his graduation year at Australia’s National Institute of Dramatic Art and complained that he never received the $450 he was promised for performing in the film.